Vedanta

Vedanta is an ancient path of knowledge revealing the true nature of self as awareness.

The sampradaya – lineage and tradition goes back thousands of years offering knowledge that has been distilled and purified by tens of thousands of rishis and sages.

The Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita and the Brahma Sutra are the source texts of Vedanta. Adi Shankara, in the 8th century offered commentaries on the Upanishads that further refined Vedanta. In the 14th century, Vidyaranya, from the Vivarana school, offered the Panchadasi, commentaries that further expounded upon the teachings.

Vedanta is a complete means of knowledge that explores/explains the self (awareness), Maya, a conditioning power within awareness that gives rise to Isvara the creator, the jagat or creation and the jiva or embodied soul.

“Vedanta is not a method of self-improvement or psychotherapy. It is not concerned with improving the individual, but rather with revealing one’s true nature as pure awareness and negating one’s identification with the apparent person one seems to be.” James Swartz

The essential methodology of Vedanta as a means of knowledge is called atma-anatma-viveka, or the discrimination (viveka) between the self (atma) and the apparently real/not self (anatma).